Amber
by Imyoshi
Summary: Jaune Arc just couldn't find the strength to be mad at her.


**Disclaimer:** I own nothing of RWBY.

* * *

 **Amber**

 **By: Imyoshi**

Blake was a Faunus.

Her teammates knew that.

She was part cat—a feline.

They knew that too.

Which made her wondered why the heck didn't her teammates seem to _understand_ that she did not like dogs? Did not! In fact, she practically hated them. Hated them with a heated passion! How could none of them see that?

Some could blame it on her instincts all they wanted, but that didn't change the fact that she hated Ruby and Yang's pet. _Especially_ when it would stare at her for fixed periods of time, or when the damn dog barked at the most random of moments, disrupting her reading or her well-needed catnaps.

Blake hated Zwei. Plain and simple.

It's a miracle she hadn't attacked the dog yet.

Reading on her bed and alone in their room, she couldn't fight the scowl that rested on her usually normal calm features. She knew without even looking, her fingers had dug deep into her book's cover as she tried to focus on the mess of words in front of her. Tried being the keyword.

 _Bark_!

Tried _really_ being the key word here.

 _Bark_! _Bark_!

That's it!

Snapping her book shut, Blake fell back on the poorly suspended bed, pinching the bridge of her nose in much annoyance. She lazily decided to ignore the sounds of Zwei chewing on something below her, blowing a stray strand of her hair away from her face instead. At this point, she felt like giving up and throwing in the towel.

First she couldn't read in the library due to Yang always hiding around with her laser pointer of evil. Damn it, Yang! Then reading outside proved to be too hard for half the people in Beacon tended to be too loud to fully focus compared to her three teammates. Ruby tended to find her if she went anywhere else and didn't seem to get her subtle, yet unsubtle hints of _leave me alone_. The forest was a no-go as well with all the Grimm lurking about.

And now she couldn't even enjoy the sanctum of her team's own room.

Somebody shoot her now.

And the worse part about it all— _the worst part_ —she couldn't exactly harm, scare, or even kick the dog out. Her team really loved the darn thing. The tricky mutt already had her friends under his spell with his tail chasing antics, useless rolling skills, and constant need for belly rubs. Darn those belly rubs.

Staring at the bland ceiling, Blake could hear Zwei enjoying himself on whatever he found to chew on. Whatever the dog was chewing on must have been exciting and tasty for him. Would she be a bad friend for her to hope it was Ruby's curtains?

Looking down to see, her eyes widen dramatically before she narrowed them down in a cat-like glare, fighting an instinctual urge to hiss.

Her book! One of her precious books was being ripped apart by that—that _animal_! His filthy teeth were ripping right through her precious companion! Zwei's tearing right through pages of the poor book, eventually throwing the fallen book across the room. And then he had the gall to look up at her and wag his tail in complete innocence!

Time stopped for Blake.

Then something snapped in her.

This intruder had to be stopped.

...

In her defense, she really liked that book.

Not even a minute after Blake lunged forward and attacked the defenseless dog, the rest of her team had entered the room to see her actually holding and strangling said dog, shaking the poor creature back and forth stubbornly in her arms. And of course they took the dog's side. Calling her childish and pointing out how totally unreasonable she was being. Her! Unreasonable!

"How could you, Blake?" Ruby accused, holding Zwei in her arms and hiding behind a confused Yang. "What did Zwei do to deserve such... such _torment_?"

Not believing that Ruby could glare so hard, Blake looked over to Weiss for some back up, only for the Heiress to have just as an equally strong glare as Ruby's. That made her blood boil.

Really? Really!

Was no one on her side here?

That damn thing massacred one of _her_ books, shredded the poor thing to pieces, never to be read again. And they were mad at her? Where's the justice in the world? The humanity? Someone had to stand up and speak against these atrocious crimes!

Blake's eyes narrowed slightly. It's time to fight back.

"Look..." Blake calmly spoke, holding up her ruined book. "He destroyed one of my books, _my_ books, Ruby. Lines were crossed and I couldn't just let him get away with that."

That sounded a lot harsher than she intended, and Ruby thought so as well.

"So! He's just a dog. He doesn't know any better!" she fussed, protectively cuddling the dog. "Isn't that right? You didn't know that Blake's books weren't toys?" Ruby cooed, holding Zwei and rocking him back and forth. "Of course you didn't! You're just my silly, perfect Zwei!"

Knowing her case was already a lost cause, Blake sighed, pinching her nose yet again.

Life was unfair. Maybe she could trade one of her nine in for a better one?

Heated, Blake looked to over Weiss for anything, but she who found the heiress already tickling the intruder, equally as fascinated as Ruby. Blake then looked over to Yang for any type of support— _anything_! But Yang only gave her the best apology shrug she could make, her smile both apologetic and highly amusing.

Well, it wouldn't be Yang if there wasn't somewhat of a mocking element in her gesture.

Giving up, Blake looked over her destroyed book, _humming_ a sigh of disappointment. What she wouldn't give to find a nice place to read. The very idea seemed to be becoming a very elusive dream to her recently.

Not wanting to be around Zwei, she quickly headed toward the door, needing to be anywhere but here. She just made it out into the hallway before Ruby appeared in a trail of rose petals, blocking her path, and holding up Zwei accusingly toward her with the dog panting in excitement.

"Not so fast!" Ruby ordered in a leader like fashion, a pout evident on her adorable face. "You still got to apologize to Zwei for almost hurting him!"

Blake blinked at her.

She _must_ be crazy if she thought that was going to happen.

"I don't think so." Blake answered flatly, only getting another step in before a loud rumble enticed the entire hall with Team JNPR's door surprisingly crashing open.

Chaos erupted out from the other team's room and out stepped the entire team in a disorderly and utterly hectic fashion. First with a cheerful Nora skipping out, grinning widely with a smile that just screamed out guilty, covered from top to bottom in what she figured to be red sap. Ren quickly followed after, covered in heaps of red sap as well, sporting a disbelieving glare toward his partner who only seemed to rock back and forth.

And finally both Jaune and Pyrrha stepped out with Pyrrha covered in almost as much red sap as both Ren and Nora. She eventually sighed at her messy appearance. Jaune, on the other hand, looked relatively sap free, only bits here and there sticking on his unsure face. Sadly enough, the scene in front of the now gathered Team RWBY wasn't too unusual for them, practically the opposite actually.

Flicking some red sap from his hair, Ren sighed quietly before looking over back to the guilty looking Valkyrie. "Nora?"

"Yes, Ren?"

"Please explain to me..." he began, flicking even more sap from his hair. "Why one of your grenades just destroyed our entire stash of red sap and _our_ room?"

"Oh! That's easy, Ren!" Everyone leaned forward to hear her answer. "I forgot about it!" And then everyone momentarily fell. "Opps! Hehe, sorry Ren. At least it was amazing! And look! We're covered in this delicious sap! I bet we taste spectacular! Like a strawberry filled pancake! Oh! You should make pancakes! I bet they'll taste sweet, but then again we are also sticky and—!"

"Nora?" Ren stopped with her humming happily. "I think it would best if we all got cleaned up first before we make any other plans."

"Yea, I would definitely like that." Added Pyrrha. "My face is so sticky and so is my hair."

Yang never even got the chance to open her mouth before Weiss slapped her hand over it, glaring at her, and daring the blonde brawler to even try and say something indecent. Yang merely huffed before mumbling _fine_ and grinning slightly at the recoil the Heiress got when she flicked her tongue over her palm. There's never a dull moment for Yang Xiao Long!

Agreeing with her handsome friend, Nora started licking some of the red sap away from fingers, enjoying the taste as she finally noticed all of Team RWBY across from them. But her eyes quickly fell upon the dog in Ruby's arms.

"Oh my Monty!" cooed Nora, moving closer to gush over Zwei. "Guys, look! Ruby has the world's most adorable dog in her hands! Can I hold him? Please! Oh say yes!"

All eyes turned to the dog and a thrilled Nora. Ren really wanted to sigh, but Nora's bubbling personality eventually soothed him. Just seeing her so happy made him happy and Ren never planned to make Nora unhappy.

Never.

"Sure." Ruby agreed, handing over an excited Zwei who began mercilessly licking off any red sap off of Nora's face. "His name is Zwei. But don't tell anyone we have him, okay?"

Okay!" saluted Nora, hugging the dog right after with Zwei licking her sugar-stained cheeks. "Awww, he likes me!"

Pyrrha smiled at Nora's antics, enjoying seeing her teammate so happy. At least that was until some of the red sap on her hair began sliding down her forehead, leaving a trail of stickiness.

Okay! They all really needed a shower. Well, at least Ren, Nora and she did. Jaune only had small bits on his cheeks, having been standing behind Ren when the explosion happened. Lucky sap.

Speaking of Jaune?

Pyrrha looked over to their leader to see his face molded in a mask of seriousness, far from his usual carefree one. In fact, his eyes were focused in a harden gaze. It almost looked like he was remembering something.

"Jaune—?"

"Oh!" Nora cut in, laughing with delight. "Let's bring inside our room so he can lick all the—!"

"I don't think that's a good idea, Nora." Jaune finally spoke, cutting in and glaring at the dog. "I really don't like dogs."

"C'mon, Fearless Leader!" Nora begged, not noticing the way Jaune tensed up from her coming closer with Zwei in her hands. "He could help us clean up."

"No."

All the occupants in the hall stopped to look over from where that slightly cold voice came from. And both teams were shocked to find Jaune Arc, easy going leader of Team JNPR, staring heatedly at the dog in Nora's hand with eyes filled with hate.

"I don't like dogs." Jaune repeated, his voice still holding some emotion in it. "We are _not_ bringing a _dog_ into our room."

Nora moved closer to Jaune with Zwei still in her hands, eyes wide. "But, Jaune—?"

"Go take a shower." Jaune ordered for the first time in a leader like tone, leaving no room for argument. "I'll clean up the mess in our room. You can play with the dog in their room, but not ours."

Jaune left everyone alone in the hallway, going to go clean their sap covered room. Nora wanted to argue and even Pyrrha a little for Jaune's unusual behavior, but it was Ren who stopped them.

"C'mon..." he urged, grabbing Nora by the shoulder. "I'm sure if we ask Jaune about it later, he'll tell us. But he's right." Ren flicked even _more_ sap from his hair. "We all do need some showers. And yes, even you, Nora."

Nora pouted, grumbling something about unfairness and eventually handed the dog back to a still stunned Ruby, to a still stunned Team RWBY anyways, and followed Ren along with Pyrrha in tow, stopping only once to look back at their room.

Easy enough to say, everyone was a little shaken by Jaune's unnatural harsh voice, but none so more than Blake. Especially considering where that harsh voice had been directed to.

The intruder.

And that's when she realized it. Jaune Arc did not like dogs. She could bet one of her nine lives on that.

An idea already wrapped itself around her head before she could breathe.

...

Scrubbing the walls of their room, Jaune used one of his already dirty shirts to wipe off most of the red sap. He was mostly going through the motions, really thinking of ways to talk to his team later.

 _Knock! Knock! Knock!_

It wouldn't be until a few minutes later that a _knock_ would come from Team JNPR's door, stopping his duty of cleaning. Jaune would be lying if he said he wasn't expecting it. What he wouldn't be lying about was the surprise he got when he opened the door. Of all the people he thought he would open the door to, Blake wasn't one of them.

He honestly expected to see Ruby, Yang, or maybe even Weiss. He, however, did not expect to see Blake standing outside the hall with a subtle look of curiosity in her eyes.

There's irony in there somewhere.

"Blake?! What are you doing here?"

The Faunus winced a little from Jaune's confused tone. She couldn't fault him. They weren't exactly friends. Maybe they could barely pass as acquaintances at the most, but not friends. Were they really that awkward?

"Hello, Jaune." Blake started, clearing her throat. "I just came to ask you something."

Jaune stared at her for a moment, finally shrugging and waving for her to come in. Talk or not, he had a room to finish cleaning. "Come on in."

Stepping in, Blake took in the scene around her, her Faunus senses picking up on just how much covered the room. Sap covered a good portion of the walls, floor and windows. At least it looked like Jaune got all the sap off their beds and carpet. There's a plus. Small victories and all that.

"Well?" she observed. "Nora's bomb really did a number on this place."

"What do you wanna talk about?" Jaune cut straight to the point, still a little on edge.

Though the Arc had a pretty good guess on what she wanted to talk about.

"It's about what happened in the hall."

Two points for him.

He sighed, going back to finish de-sapping the walls. "What about it? I don't like dogs. Enough said."

"I wasn't going to ask why you hated dogs. I just wanna know..." Blake paused, her bow twitching in anticipation at the idea of her plan. "If I could read in here... sometimes?"

He stopped midway from a swipe, looking over his shoulder, completely baffled. Of all things he expected her to say, that wasn't one them. "Wait a second? That's it? That's all your gonna ask? You're not gonna ask why I hate dogs?"

She lazily shrugged, not at all slightly deterred from his gaze. She met his with a look of understanding. "What do I care? I don't like dogs either. And I can understand not wanting to talk about the past."

Still staring at her, he slowly allowed himself to smile, already feeling in a much better mood.

"Sure." Jaune nodded, pointing over to the corner nearest to her. "I'm still cleaning up right now, but if you want, that corner's pretty clean. I'll just finish up here while you read—if you want that is! I'm not forcing you to read! It's not like, I didn't mean—I'll just be shutting up now."

It was the first time Jaune ever saw Blake smile.

...

Later into the afternoon, the rest of Jaune's team returned from their showers to find their leader cleaning of what little remained of the red sap, his face almost back to his usual calmness. Even stranger was that Blake appeared to be sitting in the corner of their room, lost deeply in one her books?

She seemed to be very content at the moment.

Ignoring the guest in their room for the time being, Nora stepped forward with a little push from Ren, grinning sheepishly at their leader.

"Um, Jaune?" Nora hummed with Ren right behind her. "Sorry for blowing up the room and stuff. It was accident! Honest."

Struggling not to _bang_ his head into the wall, Jaune knew he really _should_ be mad, but Nora's sadden voice got to him. It really was an accident, that much was true. After all, Nora would never _deliberately_ destroy their supply of red sap they painstaking acquired after how much the Valkyrie pleaded to get more. She wanted them for her meals.

Jaune Arc just couldn't find the strength to be mad at her.

He briefly wondered if that's how Ren felt like all the time. Besides, he never really was mad at _her_ , just at the dog.

Sighing, Jaune turned around to greet a nervous Nora, an indifferent Ren, and a mildly impressed Pyrrha who couldn't help but look around at how clean the room was already. What? Living with a big family made a man pick up certain skills. Living with younger and impressionable sisters also made a brother learn to pick his battles. This being one of them.

"Nora." Jaune began, feeling a little guilty for making her nervous. "It's alright. I know you didn't mean it. No harm done."

Just to prove a point, Jaune gave her a disarming smile and a quick thumbs up, effectively removing the dark thoughts from their bubbly teammate. Ren smiled somewhere in the background in appreciation and Pyrrha's busy now staring at their current guest in the corner.

Back to her normal self, Nora ran up and squeezed Jaune in a death hug. "Aw, thanks Jaune! You're the best leader ever! How can I ever make it up to you?"

"You could let go of me?" Jaune wheezed, struggling not to pass out.

A sudden idea struck Nora's head, making her release Jaune and grab Ren by the sleeves of his outfit. The poor boy didn't even get a chance to say anything before being pulled toward the door by his grinning teammate and not-girlfriend.

"I know what we can do!" Nora yelled, already out the door. "We'll make you the bestest pancakes ever! They'll make all the other pancakes in the world jealous! C'mon, Ren! Time's a wastin!"

Nora's voice died down the further she went and Pyrrha shook her head, wondering how it went from Nora asking what _she_ could to make things right, to how what _we_ could do to make things right.

Poor Ren.

Never even stood a chance to begin with.

Leaving them to their usual antics, Pyrrha went back to staring at Blake, who didn't look like Nora's outburst affected her in the least, if the subtle turning of the page in her book meant anything to go on. She guessed having Ruby and Yang as teammates made her use to their usual outburst as well.

It was still a little nerve-wracking having her just sit there.

Slightly uncomfortable, Pyrrha coughed into her hand, staring back at their leader who was finishing up the last corner of their room. He was about done and the time for their usual training regime reared close. She could always ask about Blake later.

"Uh, Jaune?" Pyrrha called out. "We should be going soon."

Jaune paused, checking the time on his scroll. Pyrrha was right. It was almost time to train.

"Okay!" he grinned. "I'll meet you there in a few minutes; I just got to finish this last part here."

Pyrrha smile, nodding in agreement and moved toward the door. She stopped to somewhat wave to Blake.

"Goodbye, Blake?"

"See ya..." Blake answered absently, flipping another page.

Still confused, Pyrrha left to go get ready, leaving Blake and Jaune alone again in the room. There was a small tension in the room, but both parties didn't seem to care at all. A few minutes later, Jaune finished cleaning the last of the red sap and hurried to get Crocea Mors, preparing himself for another grueling training session. And when he was about to head out the door, Jaune's hand lingered on the handle, thinking hard.

When he didn't move for a few moments, Blake looked up to see what was wrong before his voice cut in.

"When I was little, a couple of stray dogs attacked me and if wasn't for my dad being nearby—I had to be hospitalize for a week." Jaune informed somberly, grabbing all of Blake's attention. "Ever since then, I can't look at them and see the adorable faces everyone else sees. I can't. Just seeing one brings up so many bad memories."

Blake didn't know why he was telling her this, she actually felt a little touch that he did and she could even see him sigh in relief from probably finally saying that. And just like nothing, Jaune returned back to his goofy self, maybe even a little more confident than before.

"Man, I feel so much better!" Jaune laughed, opening the door. "I've got to go, Blake. You can stay here if you want. I have to hurry—!"

"Wait."

He did and she stood to move closer to him, face blank. She leaned a little closer. "You missed some red sap."

"Really?" Jaune asked, looking across the spotless room. "Where? I don't see any anywhere."

"Here." Blake flicked her finger across his cheek and took the remaining sap away from him, tasting the red liquid, face still _very_ blank. "Mmm, this stuff is pretty good. I can see why Nora likes it so much."

"I... uh?" Jaune froze and Blake merely sat down, reopening her book. "Wait? What?"

"You better hurry." Blake informed with a hidden smile behind her book. "You don't want to keep Pyrrha waiting. Do you?"

"N-No!" he jumped, running out the door in a hurry only to pop his head back in right after, face still flushed. "You know, Blake... I could always use more friends."

Blake looked up from her book, eyes curious. Her bow twitched as she thought about it. Her hidden smile grew a little bigger. More friends sounded nice.

"That all depends..." she finally said, enjoying his discomfort a little which was something she recently started liking for some odd reason. Dammit, Yang!

"On what?"

"What's?" she paused, flipping another page. "Your opinion on cats?"

Jaune didn't really understand the question, but he shrugged anyways, scratching his head.

"They're pretty awesome with the way they always land on their feet and stuff. They're mysterious when they want to be. I don't hate them." Blake watched as he rambled for a bit, waiting for him to say some words with worth behind them. "They're much better than dogs, that's for sure."

In Team RWBY's room, Yang Xiao Long suddenly froze and felt like she just missed the chance of a lifetime as Blake Belladonna next door smiled a smile that only be described as the grin of a Cheshire cat.

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 **Author Notes:** Edited **\- 2/16/2018**


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